This film companion to the visual art exhibition Loss for Words comprises five short videos by artists addressing the slippery nature of language at a time when forms of communication are both disappearing and rapidly evolving.

Hawaii(23)

Directed by Kim Schoen2017, 23min

Kim Schoen’s short video piece Hawaii(23) depicts the production of empty books and the decisions around titling these blank forms. It begins in straight documentary style and is gradually intercut with more imagistic sequences, as Schoen employs the similarly blank form of stock footage to form striking, new associative meanings for these vacant objects.

Identify

Directed by Sara Greenberger Rafferty 2017, 18min

This absurd mashup combines material found at the National Museum of American History while researching jokes in Phyllis Diller’s archive with information about bulk data collection by the NSA. In Identify, Sara Greenberger Rafferty speaks directly to the current political climate and its disdain for truth over entertainment.

Slow Zoom, Long Pause

Directed by Sara Magenheimer 2015, 13min

Asking questions like, “What color is the sound of your name?” and “Can you think of a thing that itself is a symbol, too?” Sara Magenheimer’s Slow Zoom, Long Pause is a philosophical exploration of the inherent hierarchies embedded in linguistic structures, drawing a direct correlation between language and image.

Open Outcry

Directed by Ben Thorp Brown 2013, 14min

Ben Thorp Brown's video examines the obsolescent hand language of commodities traders, tying the flow of capital to the creation and dissolution of linguistic forms.

OMG + Reply

Directed by Abbey Williams OMG, 2016, 6min/Reply, 2017, 8min

In OMG and Reply, Abbey Williams creates cacophonous compositions by interweaving personal footage with images sourced from films and video games, screen captures from texting, and YouTube comments. The resulting montage is a personal narrative reflecting the divisiveness and lack of clarity these new modes of communication bring.

Photos: Sarah Magenheimer, still from Slow Zoom, Long Pause, courtesy of the artist and Video Data Bank, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Abbey Williams, still from OMG, courtesy of the artist; Kim Schoen, still from Hawaii(23), courtesy of the artist and Moskowitz Bayse.